The five clubs vying for admission to the SPL have had their inspection and now look forward to having their say on 3 July.

The SFL delegation charged with considering which of the five candidates for the available place in the league have been on their travels. All five clubs had to be visited to check out the reality behind the membership application forms. Three teams, Preston Athletic, Annan Athletic and Highland League Champions Cove Rangers were visited recently following up the visits to Spartans and Edinburgh City. The SFL do not want another Gretna on their hands and are checking out the facilities available as well as looking at the financial grounding of the clubs.

Pennypit in Prestonpans is the home of Preston Athletic and it fell to club secretary Andrew Waddell to lead the touring party around the ground. Afterwards he said: "It was a very positive meeting and I felt that the delegation were clearly impressed with our dressing rooms and other facilities at the Pennypit Centre. We can cater with hospitality, segregation, security and the needs of disabled persons. Our toilet facilities will need to be upgraded and we already have a floodlighting system. There are thoughts that we might at some stage move in the future, but that is more long-term, so, at the moment, we are ready to play SFL fixtures at the Pennypit. The delegation will now make a report which will be circulated to all 29 member clubs and we will actively lobby these clubs in the next two weeks."

Over at Annan Athletic it was the top man at the Galabank Stadium, chairman Henry McLelland, who was the tour guide for the day. He said: "We took them around our ground, our new grandstand and our all-weather training facilities. It was explained where home and away fans would enter and exit, policing arrangements, hospitality, changing rooms and press facilities. We have hosted big Scottish Cup ties in the past so obviously everything is in place to cater for the Third Division games. The delegation was very interested in our progress to install floodlights and we confirmed with them that we expect the floodlights to be operational by the first week in August. That project has been expedited and if absolutely necessary to play a midweek floodlight match then we have agreed to play at Queen of the South's Palmerston Park. The delegation also asked about our financial stability. We have put Annan's case forward and we will now be lobbying the SFL member clubs to try to get them to vote for us on July 3."

3 July will be decision day for the five clubs as they have the opportunity to give a presentation to the 29 current member clubs. The members will then vote on which team should be admitted to the exclusive club and the first team to acquire 15 votes will make the SFL back up to a three 10 team league structure.

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